Gaylord Hotel and Convention Center-National Harbor, MD
Inside the hotel, an interesting wall hanging
A park near the Capitol with a very overgrown bush. Looks like it has multi-beards.
Outside the Library of Congress
A park on the way back to Union Station
Butterfly weed
Very tame squirrel! There were two of them right outside an office building, so they probably got fed all the time.
The three of us went down to National Harbor, MD on Saturday the 1st for Abbey Road on the River, the musical tribute to the Beatles. We went last year and stayed at the Gaylord and had a fun time. I changed the room this year to the atrium area so we wouldn’t have as far to walk. That helped, as did bringing foods for a few meals, but that’s about it. It was very humid and just standing in the sun for a few minutes was miserable. We purchased ‘general admission’ tickets and not ‘preferred seating’. Even though it was suppose to be half price for two days, it was still $70 and we had a hard time just standing and finding a place to stand. Last year they had seats open and we usually got to sit down, almost at every venue. Many times this year, there were empty seats for the P.A. and people standing elbow to elbow everywhere even up and down the walkways for G.A.. To me that isn’t too safe and not very organized. Saturday night we sat in a little area for hotel guests near the pool with tables-we could barely see the singers, but we could hear them fine. That isn’t right.
We took a few shots of the bands-I have to ID them by looking at the schedule later, but I think we saw maybe 4-5 bands and last year twice that many.
See all the empty seats for the preferred seats? Behind this fence it was jammed.
That evening we did have a nice dinner at McCormick and Schmicks Seafood right on the waterfront. Sean and I had their McCormick Seafood trio of salmon with grilled shrimp and stuffed shrimp with green beans (under cooked-ugh) and cheesy kind of potatoes.
Brian had Mahi Mahi with a corn bisque. We also got a huge, delectable piece of carrot cake to share.
We took a little walk to find a cache. It was about 1/4 mile away and we had to cross over 4 roads, two which had a lot of traffic on them. It was near an interesting rock formation:
This is my early 1970s look.
The hint for the cache made it a little too easy to find. I ‘always’ look at the hint since I have gone to the trouble to go and look for the cache in the first place. It was down from this area behind a rock. Not in good shape. I forgot to bring my bag with my geocaching stuff, so I had no travel bug or swag to drop (really didn’t want to take it to the restaurant). The pen was between another rock which I didn’t see right away, so I used a crayon from the swag-lol.
So we walked on back up through the town to listen to more music and I started to have a coughing attack. It happened when we drove into the place a few hours earlier. I think my sinuses decided to act up. I was okay after I got into the hotel’s air to revive. I am spoiled by a/c. So we ventured out to ‘good ol’ general admission and right smack in the middle were 4 hotel chairs-with papers on them. I had seen them earlier with papers on them. I watched those chairs for 10-15 minutes and then decided to go sit down. You don’t save hotel chairs in this area. I was the only brave person to do so and another 10-15 minutes went by and sure enough a woman came back and said they were their chairs because they put papers on them. I said you don’t save chairs in this area and I needed to sit for a few minutes. She had a chair next to Brian and her hubby was very nice and said to stay. I said we will leave in a few songs anyway which we did. (We did see her later at another concert and she decided to sit in the 1st or 2nd row-now that’s not a good idea in a closed room with big booming speakers).
Look at the nice view they were stealing from other people. If they wanted preferred seats, they should have paid for them.
On the pier
It felt like about 94-that fan with the mist was worth every penny I paid. I seemed to be the only person with one-crazy!
So after the above fiasco (this was at the night show) Sean took a water taxi over to Alexandria like he did last year. Brian and I walked along the river and still heard the band and saw them from the back. And then…
the lightning show began….
in all my years I have never seen lightning like that-truly spectacular and scary at the same time! We decided to go in as the rain began and they cancelled the show! Inside everyone was going upstairs, so we did also. They did the firework show anyway which was pretty awesome.
‘Fire and Rain’
Not a fun way really to watch fireworks
We sat and waited for an indoor concert and listened to a few songs, but we had Sean on our mind as the rain was coming down in buckets and the power had gone out in the bar he was in. He asked the bartender how often that happens and he said about once a year! The roads in those old towns tend to flood out and Sean had to wait a bit to come back on the water taxi. We could have driven over to get him, but thank goodness that worked out well.
DC tomorrow!
Sean posing in the whiteness, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.
One of the last big dumps of snow we have gotten which was the end of January, 2011. We use to have a snow blower, but now the guys rely on pure muscle power. Seeing the snow makes me feel a bit cooler in the heat of August.
We are so zonked from last week, but on Saturday night, I asked if we could get to church a few minutes earlier as I wanted to place a cache near the parking lot area. It’s way in the front and they have twice the needed space for parking. I had a lamp post in mind, but it had a ton of overgrown bushes in front of it. I tried another post, but it was too much in the open. So I went back to the first one, walked around the corner and it wasn’t hard to reach in and put the key holder on the metal part. There is a wide open space there and what’s funny, the barracks for the township police are in sight. It shouldn’t take long to locate….I hope. I am waiting for it to be approved. I looked at the preview page and the map there has the church in the incorrect area. It’s located a little away from a main intersection-but not according to the map. I hope they just follow what I have as coordinates.
After church we went to the little park where my first cache is. I wanted to add a mini pencil, plastic bag for the log and pencil and a travel bug. A little down the road, a policeman was in his car shooting the breeze with a local. I don’t think he even saw me get out of the car, look and retrieve my cache and sit and put the stuff in it-lol.
I took a few shots of this sweet area-
We headed to Perkins as we all felt like having breakfast for dinner. I am still waiting to get a really good meal here. We don’t eat here often. Oh, before we went in, I thought it would be fun to hide a cache behind the place. It’s between a kid’s recreational place (kind of like a Chucky Cheese), so I went under some pines and hid it behind the furthest one. It shouldn’t be disturbed-I hope. That has a travel bug in it also.
So after dinner, I said-let’s go out to the next town and look for a cache. The guys both said yes, but I put the incorrect cache on the phone and we headed down a few back roads. Opps! Funny thing, we were driving down this road, and there was the former dental receptionist pulling a grandbaby down the road in a wagon! Wow, small world. And down another road, Brian had to swerve a fallen tree-just got the antenna with that one. The three of us got out and it didn’t take long to find it off the road. Sean wasn’t crazy about sticking his head in the brush. Brian and I said that was nothing! I am bringing my Oriental Trading stuff with me to restock these caches-most are so empty. For $15, I got big bags of plastic bracelets and coins.
That’s what I added underneath-even the pirate map!
It’s funny, you live in an area for over 25 yrs and you don’t see how pretty some of it is. Thanks to Geocaching we are seeing lots of ‘hidden’ beauty.
We then went down the road to a research area. It was called ‘Pony Express’ as some ponies are fenced nearby. They must have been in for the night. Sean and I got out and found it rather quickly under a tree. Again, I stocked it with some more swag.
I felt I was on a roll, so I went to the one near my house and gave it a good look-small area, but so many hiding places-trees, bushes, fence, guard rail. I just can’t see it! I emailed the CO for a hint-nothing. His was the first one we went to last night. Meanie-lol
More hot weather this week. I haven’t shown much of my gardens as there isn’t much to see except for dried up flowers and lots of weeds. The coleus do look pretty and I will photograph it. I may go see if I can pull some out-but they were saying how thick the air is-think that was my problem at the park a few weeks ago.
Our concert ‘finally’ came up. Don’t think we weren’t worried about it being a warm night, but it turned out fairly nice with lower humidity. Wow, it was pretty cool to see an actual movie star like Kevin Bacon, and he’s quite a musician. He came out playing the bongos, but switched to guitar and also harmonica. His brother Michael (age 63) not only plays the guitar, but he played the Cello in a few songs-what a treat.
Sean’s Instagram-really good! We were about 9 rows back, but you can see the view I had of the hugging couple. I also had a 40-something Madonna like lady who couldn’t sit still and had gotten up right at this moment.
The show was about 75 minutes (one encore-Bob Dylan’s ‘I Shall Be Released’).
This was a song about being a mummer’s son-called New Year’s Day. It’s a Philly thing, but what happens is the mummer’s who are in the New Year’s Day Parade, go around and recite the part of this song…
After the show was over, we went to the left through the gardens instead of to the right near where the exit was. Well little did I know, we were ‘allowed’ to go see the Bruce Munro light display down by the lake! It was so magical and like a fairyland. I am taking my mom to see the rest of it on Thursday night.
This was one of the teaser displays out front.
We got some ice cream on the way home, so it was a nice evening for the three of us!
Sean let me take a photo of him with his iPhone on the beach down in Virginia Beach. He has that instagram app and applied it. I really like this shot. It ‘was’ almost perfect. There was the seagull, the little girl near the water and the blob with a sleeping bag over his head…which was edited out.
I think I shared this one before-a friend asked him to be the subject in a photo shoot at in PSU. One of my favorites of him.
We had a low key 4th of July-it was hot. We had pasta salad, burgers, chicken and roasted corn on the cob. And the bundt cake! Someone in the family decided to have the pick on me for something that doesn’t concern them. The thing is, I did nothing to them personally for them to get so mad at me. And this person hardly goes on their FB page and decided to do so just to give me a scolding. I would never write anything like what they wrote on their wall or family members wall. I guess when someone doesn’t like you, nothing you say matters. This makes me really sad. I’ve known this person for 34 yrs. : (
After we went to the aquarium (on the 20th), we headed to the island of Chincoteague. We had gone last year and loved the hotel (alas it was booked solid this year) and the beach in the park. We stayed in America’s Best which had the door that opened right up to the outside. This isn’t good in Chincoteague as it is known for it’s mosquitoes. The room was a bit tight also. We went right to the beach at around 6 pm.
You drive a few miles through the park, a national preserve where the wild horses and other wildlife live. We saw lots of herons and a few turtles too.
Got to love that a gorgeous beach is at the other end. Of course when you are driving to the island, there are stretches and stretches of marsh and wet land.
I think Sean got a few shots of the ponies, but it takes him a while to upload his pictures….I’ll share if it’s good.
Look at this sunset-that’s their library
Here’s Misty!
The next morning we got on the road to Ocean City, MD and ended up in a little town called Pocamoke City, MD. We went into the museum there and it was like $10 each, so we passed on that. Little did I know there was a big cache right in the lobby! I use my phone a lot for caching and saw this several miles later.
We also went to Snow Hill, MD. We actually back tracked! Sean knew I wanted to see the buildings and look for a cache there.
We ate lunch here-very nice.
Snow Hill it one of the only intact Victorian towns left (I think that is what the brochure said).
We went to this little museum to find a nano cache. It was kind of funny seeing three adults looking in crevices and tapping bolts to see if they were fake. We had no luck. A nice side story is that the cache owner (part of a family of 8 who geocaches) answered my email to where it may be. She told me exactly where it was (I had logged it as a didn’t find already) and she said to message her anytime if I am stuck on a cache. Cool.
After we got to Ocean City, I did a virtual cache (photo), a small cache (near the old life saving station) and a web cam one-that last one was too hard to do as it was really bright and you were suppose to save the shot of you to show the person who did the challenge. We walked several blocks in the heat and I think we at least tried to do it! : )
We then headed to Rehoboth and grabbed a hotdog at Nathan’s and tried to do a web cam challenge there-not easy again. We weren’t there long as it’s a pain with the 30 minute parking meters you have to run back to again and again.
That was about the extent of our trip and now it’s time to weed the gardens and get that bathroom finished.
We are going to see the Bacon Brothers (Kevin) on July 10th at Longwood Gardens. We also want to see the night light display there, but we have until September. I’d rather wait a few weeks as the crowds there have been crazy. I made Sean drive past there a few night ago and they were parking in the grass near the parking lot as overflow.
Tomorrow-cache collecting-up to 20!
Since my whirlwind of activity is dying down, I can get down to brass tacks again with blogging. I went and got my mom on Saturday for a two day visit. We all went over to the father-in-law’s house to wish him a Happy 89th Birthday. From the get go, I felt pops was uncomfortable having my mom and me there. Brian and Sean were installing his new a/c (birthday gift) in his room and it was a messy job. Well Bri’s dad starts up about something ‘we need for the house’. I’d rather not say exactly what it is (send me a note if you want to know) and I said we didn’t really need it right now. Well he wouldn’t let it go and got mad at me and left the living room to sit in the family room. He’s living in a 4 bedroom split level. Mom and I were shook up and I took the car down to a local shopping center so pops would simmer down. We never did go back in the house again and never sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to him. I sure was hoping it would make him happy to have a house full of people (well almost), but that didn’t happen. It was going on 6:30 and we had to go out to eat. Too bad pops wasn’t along, but he got so grumpy that it ruined our visit.
So….we were away from early Monday to late Thursday. Our trip didn’t quite go as planned. Monday and Tuesday we were in Virginia Beach and had a nice time. We got on the road Wednesday to head to Williamsburg, but got in traffic as the tunnel there had a disabled vehicle. We got off at an exit, tried to go another way, but of course they weren’t letting anyone in. We heard it was a 5-9 mile backup, so we decided to go to Norfolk, VA for an hour and see if that changed. We tried to see the historic society, but that was closed and they were painting. We got to see the nice garden and only a few of the buildings there. We passed by the General Douglas MacArthur statue.
Here are a few Norfolk shots:
The city in the late 1880s
The backup never got better, and we had to go to Chincoteague later, so we headed to the Virginia Aquarium in Virginia Beach. It’s a neat one!
Turtles sunning themselves in the entrance area-it was very warm here.
Wow, a Komodo Dragon. He was checking everyone out!
I like this shot
Menacing sharks
Lion fish
Jelly fish-amazing!
A few more shots from Virginia Beach
The King Neptune statue was amazing and had a cache hidden under it-shhhhhh!
Sean and me under him!
Tuesday I got to met Rachael who I know from cross stitching and Facebook. She is from CA, but lived in Germany for a while, now is in VB as her hubby is working out of Norfolk. We went to the Contemporary Art Museum to see an Andy Warhol exhibit. We couldn’t take photos of the Warhol art, but I did think this glass chandelier was fascinating.
I wish I could meet all of you!
I’ll talk about the last few days of our trip tomorrow.
Cos cleaning, originally uploaded by DianthusMoon.
I don’t have many photos associated with ‘clean’, though all my photos are ‘clean’. : )
I love Cosmo’s little tongue showing here. I may tack on cleaned up gardens if I run across any photos.
Brian and I were out in the yard all afternoon today. He was trimming the forsythia along the road and hedges along the house-this took 3 hours. I was planting more seeds and a few polka dot plants I had gotten. There is a pretty shade of pink in that plant this year. I needed to fill in bare spots. I also stuck more nasturtiums around different gardens. We are enjoying low humidity all week, so not many posts as I want to be outside.
My brother had tickets to a Phillies baseball game for yesterday at 1:00. The guys decided to go at the last minute and by a small miracle got there around 2:45 after having to go to my mom’s to get the tickets. The Phillies didn’t play well at all and got swept at home by the Dodgers. That hadn’t happened since the 1940s! The guys enjoyed being in the stadium and that gave them their baseball fix for the year. Tonight the team is playing awesome in Baltimore and so far are winning. Crossing fingers (they won).
Here’s Sean at Citizen’s Bank Park with the statue commemorating Phillies announcer Harry Kalas who passed away suddenly a few years ago. Coincidentally, a pal of Sean’s dated Harry’s son for a few years.
While the guys were gone, I cleaned out a yucca and Red Hot Poker garden near the road and planted yellow Lantana, yellow Marigolds and different colors of Celosia there. I also added nasturtiums and a few moonflower seeds there too.
We’re about to go out to dinner, but I have Brian take my photo in my outfit and since my hair looked good! That’s a Viburnum bush in full bloom.
Sean got a few goodies from Trader Joe’s which he liked.
I hope you are having a lovely spring day!
Candid shots at dinner
(Buttonwood Grill, Lahaska, PA)
Mom and Sean at the restaurant
I forgot my Canon, so I had to use the phone camera. Mom and I had practically the same things to eat-Asparagus soup with feta cheese, a slice of ham and prime rib, mashed potatoes, grilled cold asparagus, fruit, a taste of a few more sides, cheesecake and mini chocolate covered cream puffs. Very good for under $30 each. This was a buffet, so we could east as much as we wanted.
I am like a food ‘coach’. First I say not to order a beverage, just go for water! Sean wanted soda and mom wanted ice tea have you noticed that beverages are $2-3 a glass now-wow, they are making a lot of money on them!) I tell the guys that most salad and pasta dishes are the cheapest things that you can order. While I was getting the Asparagus soup for mom and me, didn’t they both load up on a big wedge of iceberg lettuce (it had some fancy drizzle on it) and pasta! They did have salmon and pork tenderloin, that I didn’t sample. Brian said the salmon was yummy.
It was a little hike, about 63 miles one way, but we enjoyed the scenery up in Bucks County. Next month they are having a Strawberry Festival, so we can look in a few stores (of course most were closed). Glad to include my mom.
Collages & Creative Goodness 